Our firm won a six-figure settlement for a 59-year-old maintenance worker for the New York Blood Bank Center. He worked in their mid-town Manhattan office, and on the day of the injury the building management had hired an outside elevator company to fix a broken freight elevator.Only one worker was brought in to do this job, though at least two or three people should be needed to safely fix the elevator. The worker needed assistance so he asked our client to help hold the elevator door while he went up in the shaft to make the repair.
This elevator door is extremely heavy and was not secure. After several minutes of holding the door, our client felt a shift and then the door came slamming down on him, aggravating a preexisting condition to his back. Our client was severely injured and will not be able to ever return to this job.
Our lawyers were able to show that his injuries were due to the negligence of the elevator company brought in to fix the elevator. We showed that they failed to bring in enough manpower to complete the job, did not provide proper supervision and safety measures, did not provide proper training and failed to keep the area safe for others. We were also able to show that our client’s injuries seriously limited his activities and negatively affected his quality of life, which allowed him to collect a significant payment to compensate for his difficulties.